Seattle music scene veteran. R.E.M. sideman. Wilco collaborator. Leader of the Young Fresh Fellows and The Minus 5. For as many hats as multi-instrumentalist Scott McCaughey wears, you'd be forgiven for thinking he keeps a few extra heads on the shelf of his hall closet.

McCaughey's formal association with R.E.M. dates back 10 years, when he was asked by friend and R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck to help beef up the band's live sound for an appearance on Saturday Night Live. A decade later, McCaughey remains an unofficial official member of the college-rock progenitors' recording and touring brigade.

With the Fellows on hiatus -- "I don't see a big increase in activity in the near future," McCaughey admits -- the man who's been a walking Wayfarers ad for the better part of his career has shifted his focus, even if he still sees himself as an accidental tourist.

"I'm pretty damn unorganized, and not very career-minded," McCaughey says from an R.E.M. tour stop in St. Louis. "Basically, what determines my schedule now is R.E.M. Everything else that comes up -- or that I'm driven to do -- I try to squeeze in between R.E.M. recording and sojourns."

Ken Stringfellow also got the call from the Athens, Georgia, legends around the same time as McCaughey, but according to the self-deprecating McCaughey, former Posies front man Stringfellow isn't the laggard McCaughey sees himself as.

"Stringfellow also has to work around R.E.M., but he's probably more committed to seeing through his other projects, whereas I tend to be pretty half-assed and prone to procrastination."

McCaughey's track record indicates otherwise. After helming the Young Fresh Fellows full-time for more than 10 critically acclaimed, yet cultishly appreciated years, McCaughey began to branch out in earnest. First came the R.E.M. assignment. Not much later, McCaughey jump-started The Minus 5, a revolving, ramshackle collective of characters anchored by McCaughey and Buck, who by that point had relocated to Seattle. A debut album, Old Liquidator, and an inclusion on a high-profile John Lennon tribute compilation both came in 1995.

Last year brought Down With Wilco, a well-received studio scrum with guess-who that ostensibly gathered some new Minus 5 fans, even if it may have sailed right by a number of Wilco followers. Although most of the songs were written by McCaughey -- a tunesmith if there's ever been one -- the vocal duties were spread around, and the arrangements didn't skew too much toward either band's usual aesthetic. As a result, Down With Wilco sounds like a true merging of ideas, rather than the sonic checkerboard that usually stems from such collaborations.

McCaughey, for one, thinks all the praise heaped upon the Chicago band is justifiably deserved.

"My respect for them as a band is unparalleled," McCaughey says. "I recently saw them at Radio City Music Hall, and it was one of the best shows I've ever seen. I'm extremely proud and fortunate to have worked with them, and they inspire me to no end."

The Minus 5's At the Organ EP, featuring a number of tracks recorded during the Down With Wilco sessions, was released last week on Yep Roc Records.

As popular and well positioned as McCaughey is in the rock community, he admits he's still prone to being starstruck at times. A stint on the recent Vote for Change tour drove this point home more than ever.

"Every night watching Springsteen, and actually performing with him, was an eye-opener," he says. "The guy is just inspiring as hell, and he and the E-Streeters are just so damn nice. John Fogerty's voice still sends chills up my spine. And when Neil Young dropped in on us in Minneapolis and played lead on 'Country Feedback,' I was pretty much in heaven."

When asked what project he plans to tackle next, the affable McCaughey again downplays his industrious nature.

"Surviving is foremost in my mind," he says. "Trying to make people happy. Trying not to be a jerk. That kind of stuff. Actually, I'd like to do a collaborative record saluting the songs of my late, great songwriter friend Jimmy Silva.

"Oh yeah, and complete the next Minus 5 album on days off from R.E.M."

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